The Queens Mirror

:LII<EKJ K_\Hl\\ej Dìifi K_\Yljkcè^k_\Xki\jZ\e\è EP:Ëjdfjk[`m\ij\Yfifl^_`jXccXYflk glkkè^k_\e\`^_Yfi_ff[fejkX^\ FLIK : 9PC<J?LEK<I 8 C G8L PfbfDpf`èi\ ;<M<CFG[\Xk_mXcc\p Xkk_\:_fZfcXk\=XZkfipèCfe^@jcXe[:`kp#Hl\\ej% M<IPK?@E> PFL :FLC; N8EK PFLË; =@E; running a $4-million-a-year budget, showcasing dance and rightin Queens,” says John Guare of his Queens childhood music as well as plays in a building constructed for the 1964 È in the intro to The House of Blue Leaves. Today, more than half World’s Fair. Its new-play series, the “Immigrant Voices of the population of Queens was born in another country, Project,” develops plays from public readings to polished and that’s one reason Guare’s statement holds true: From works. “The goal is ultimately to show the pieces here,” says the famous spicy chicken over basmati rice served in Urdu- Jeffrey Rosenstock, executive director of QTP. Both Our < inflected English at Sammy’s Halal in Jackson Heights, to the Dad Is in Atlantis by Javier Malpica (co-produced with the outdoor cafés in predominantly Greek Astoria wafting the Working Theater and Lark Play Development Center) and scents of halva and baklava, to the Afrocentric bookstores and Kingdom by Aaron Jafferis and Ian Williams (in partnership boutiques lining the 165th Street pedestrian mall in Jamaica, with the Public Theater) were developed at QTP and later it’s all in Queens. Increasingly, “everything you could want” produced both in both Queens and Manhattan. includes a thriving theatre scene that derives a good deal of its A litany of other groups has since joined QTP on the creative engine from the diverse communities it serves. scene. Long Island City’s Chocolate Factory, which opened For many years prior to 1996, professional theatre in in 2004, has become a theatrical hothouse of new plays and Queens was offered on a continuous basis by only two groups, performance art. Astoria Performing Arts Center, which Black Spectrum Theatre and Thalia Spanish Theatre, organi- opened in 2001, supplies a robust arts education program in zations that today still offer culturally relevant programming conjunction with mainstage shows. Both the Queens Players, to the black and Hispanic communities, respectively. Since which focuses on new interpretations of old classics, and the that time, the scene has grown to seven full-time producing classical theatre Queens Shakespeare were founded in 2005. bodies that offer a wide range of theatrical presentations, Jackson Repertory Theatre, the most recent addition to the including more than 25 different plays last season alone. Of scene, looks to create new work that engages the diverse any U.S. area, “Queens has the most ethnicities and spoken neighborhood of Jackson Heights. languages per square mile,” says Angel Gil Orrios, Thalia’s That being said, the longest-running show in town—still artistic director. “It’s only natural that cultural institutions going strong in its 40th season—is Black Spectrum Theatre come out of these growing populations.” in St. Albans, Queens, a middle-class African-American and Queens Theatre in the Park, or “QTP” (pronounced Caribbean suburb stretching eastward of Brooklyn. “People “Q-Tip”), as it is affectionately known, became an independent ask me, how can I do this for 40 years?” says Carl Clay, founder nonprofit in 1997 and is by far the biggest player on the scene, and artistic director of Black Spectrum and a St. Albans native. ((/ 8D<I@:8EK?<8KI<F:KF9<I'0 the African-American community. In 1978, Black Spectrum opens this season with Black Spectrum moved to a storefront on Single Black Female, Lisa B. Thompson’s Linden Avenue, a place whose seating capac- humorous consideration of the romantic ity, according to longtime Black Spectrum options available to a successful black woman. musical director Derek Galloway, “just kept The theatre then hosts its annual origi- getting smaller and smaller. We’d have a show, nal work ’Twas the Night Before Kwanzaa in sell it out, and the police would come and December. It takes a turn for the serious in tell us we had too many people. So we’d have March with a revival of Rob Penny’s Good another show, let in the max number that they Black Don’t Crack, a piece about a single told us, and then they’d come back and tell us mother’s struggle to raise her child in Pitts- there were too many people anyway.” burgh in the 1970s. In conjunction with the Eventually, in 1988, the theatre moved play, the theatre is holding an informational to its current residence, a 425-seat renovated conference, “Loving Our Single Mothers.” theatre in a breezy concrete municipal park Also in March, Black Spectrum will launch building in Roy Wilkins Park, a few miles into work on a new play by Clay titled The from its old storefront. Though the venue has Game, with the expectation of producing it on 8 EE changed, the goals of the company have not. the company’s traveling summer stage. D FFI< “We take issues that are of paramount concern The Game finds two men, one black and to the community and turn them into theatre one white, in the back of a library, playing a C\jc`\?Xii\cc;`cc\eèJk\gdfk_\ièXJXi`Xk pieces,” says Clay. Theatrical pieces such as game of chess. It quickly becomes apparent AXZbjfeI\gèAXZbjfe?\`^_kj#Hl\\ej% Oh! Oh! Obesity, which addresses overeating, that the game in progress serves as an alle- Samson’s Way, which deals with gang violence, gory for race relations in the United States. “What sustains me is the idea that our theatre and Clear Vision, which examines teen preg- “They’re not so much playing chess as they is a reflection of our community.” nancy, illustrate that commitment. Each piece are dealing with the thoughts that we all have The theatre got its start in 1969 in the is an original work written by a resident of St. about other races,” says Clay. “This is the basement of Trinity Lutheran Church with Albans, which the company develops through stuff that people deal with in the privacy of Black Love, a piece that spoke directly to readings to full productions. their bedrooms when they talk about race.” F:KF9<I'08D<I@:8EK?<8KI< ((0 :LII<EKJ Clay believes the issues raised in The Game are particularly timely: “Just because we have a black president, people think we don’t need to worry about discrimination anymore. But I think we still have things to talk about.” Once you get to Jamaica Center from St. Albans, it’s then a simple ride west on the E train to Jackson Heights, one of the nation’s first urban “garden communities,” where the streets are lined by block-long brick neo-Tudor apartment buildings with steep shingled roofs and turrets. Many of these CC@EJ buildings house private gardens, only glimpses 8IF E < of which can be seen from the street. E Jackson Heights is home to large Indian, ÊKnXjk_\E`^_k9\]fi\BnXeqXXXk9cXZbJg\ZkildK_\Xki\èJk%8cYXej#Hl\\ej% Pakistani and Colombian communities, as well as smaller Russian, Argentine and Chi- among other things, learning English as a the borough), a series of 12 interwoven short nese populations, among enclaves of young second language, may inadvertently alienate works by 12 different playwrights, many of professionals. For Jackson Repertory The- some demographic groups in an attempt to them local (including Stefanie Zadravec, atre, the rich diversity of the neighborhood reach out to others. “How do you do work whose Honey Brown Eyes was published in the provides ample material for works inspired that celebrates all these different voices and February ’09 issue of this magazine). by and about the various cultures in flux, at the same time is visible to a broad range of “It’s not an evening of 12 short plays but also creates programming difficulties: people?” wonders Ari Laura Kreith, Jackson about Jackson Heights,” warns Kreith— Previous shows such as Stepmother in a Sari, Rep’s artistic director. This season, Jackson instead, she explains, it’s an “exploration about a white woman who goes to India for Rep will attempt to answer this question by of the emotional geography of the area.” her stepdaughter’s wedding, and No Solo Mio, developing and producing 167 Tongues (named The playwrights, as well as a choreographer an audience-participation solo show about, after the 167 different languages spoken in and a composer, will go through a series of ()' 8D<I@:8EK?<8KI<F:KF9<I'0 dramaturgical workshops: First, they will AXZbjfeI\gn`cc the one in LIC. Accordingly, says Rogers, physically draw a map of the neighborhood, “It will be a different show, but some of the then construct characters that would popu- [\m\cfgXe[gif[lZ\ same things are happening there.” late different parts of the map. With these (-.Kfe^l\j# Gentrification has not only played a role characters, they will create scenes that will in the content of the growing Queens scene, be streamlined into an overarching narrative, eXd\[X]k\ik_\(-. but in its context as well. The founders of both perhaps one guided by a child. “I like the idea the Chocolate Factory and Queens Players of seeing the neighborhood through the eyes [`]]\i\ekcXe^lX^\j readily admit that cheaper rental prices in of a child,” says Kreith. “I want the work to jgfb\eèk_\Yfifl^_% Queens play a part in their choice of location.

Load more